Friday, March 4, 2016

2016 OUTFEST FUSION

Outfest Fusion, the annual cinematic celebration of LGBT people of color, begins today and runs through March 16th. The event has been expanded to thirteen days which allows an opportunity for even more films and workshops to be presented.

The classic 1996 film, "The Watermelon Woman" by writer/director Cheryl Dunye, will be screened on March 4th. The comedy explores issues of race, gender and sexuality with Dunye staring as a documentary film maker in search of information on an iconic African-American actress from the 1930's while she starts a new romance with a white woman (Guinevere Turner). For it's twentieth anniversary, "The Watermelon Woman" has been digitally restored and there will be a conversation with Dunye on March 5th followed by a trio of recent short films inspired by the work of the lesbian film maker.

Also on March 5th will be the Gala Screening and After-party which will show a collection of short films that introduce new voices in queer cinema. The party afterwards will be held in the courtyard of the Egyptian Theatre with a hosted bar, delicious bites and a DJ.

Some notable films that will be screened will include "Fire Song", the debut feature by Adam Garnet Jones, about a gay, Anishinaabe teen struggling to decide whether to either stay in his small aboriginal community in Canada or move to a life outside, the sexually explicit "Utopians" is an erotic drama from Japan involving a conservative young man who finds himself attracted to his male college professor and from the producer who brought us Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet" is "Baby Steps", a Taiwanese comedy about a gay couple hiring a surrogate to have a baby but is complicated once one of their mother's decides to get involved.

And for the first time, a One Minute Movie Contest with the search of a sixty-second film involving the theme of either "I Am" or "I Was". The films will be screened on March 16th at Angel City Brewery and the winners selected will receive either a cash prize or an Outfest membership.

For the complete list of films, events and to purchase tickets, please click: 2016 Outfest FUSION